BREAKING NEWS

The doctor will always be with you

A new cellular phone application enables doctors to view the medical files of patients at any time, any place.

APRIL 27, 2013 22:21

A new cellular phone application enables doctors at Tel Hashomer’s Sheba Medical Center to view the medical files of patients at any time, any place. The application, which is suited to iPhone and Android systems, is rigorously protected to preserve patient privacy and interacts with the Chameleon system for managing medical files. On the spot, doctors will be able to see data on hospitalization, operations, clinic visits, medical tests, prescriptions, sensitivities and anything else needed to speed diagnosis and follow up on patients more efficiently – even when clinicians are not present at the hospital and/or abroad. Everything will be presented in real time and improves consultations on specific cases.

“Integrating the mobile world into the hospital’s computer systems will make it possible to give higher quality and more efficient treatment,” said Bruno Lavi, Sheba’s deputy director-general for technology.

“The application we developed shortens the way data is transferred to the doctors and makes it more efficient. There is no doubt that this is an advance that will significantly change the availability of medical care as we know it,” added Nir Mizrahi, head of the mobile branch at Elad Systems, which developed the application.

YUMMY & HEALTHFUL Chocolate, especially bitter or dark, is one of the relatively small number of foods that not only taste good but, in moderation, are also good for you. Fruit juice, while also tasty, is regarded as very fattening because of the large amount of natural sugar.) Now, a scientist has reported that chocolate could become even better for you if infuse with fruit juice. New technology for making “fruit-juice-infused chocolate” was announced during the 245th National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

Dr. Stefan Bon, who led the research, explained that the technology would enable the manufacturing of chocolate with fruit juice, vitamin C water or diet cola, replacing up to 50 percent of the fat. The juice is in the form of micro-bubbles that help chocolate retain the lush, velvety “mouth-feel” – the texture that is firm and snappy to the bite and yet melts in the mouth. The process also prevents “sugar bloom,” the unappetizing white film which coats the surface of chocolate that has been on the shelf for a while.

“We have established the chemistry that’s a starting point for healthier chocolate confectionary,” Bon said. “This approach maintains the things that make chocolate ‘chocolatey,’ but with fruit juice instead of fat. Now we’re hoping the food industry will take the next steps and use the technology to make tasty, lowerfat chocolate bars and other candy.”

Chocolate’s high fat and sugar content is a downside, compared to its high levels of healthful plant-based substances termed antioxidants or flavonoids, Bon explained. A 60-gram serving of premium dark chocolate may contain 13 grams of fat – 20% of the total daily fat recommended for a person who eats 2,000 calories daily. Much of that fat is the unhealthy saturated variety. Substituting fruit juice or cola also reduces the overall sugar content of the candy.

The technology works with dark, milk and white chocolate.

Bon’s team at the University of Warwick in the UK has made chocolate infused with apple, orange and cranberry juice. “Fruitjuice- infused candy tastes like an exciting hybrid between traditional chocolate and a chocolate-juice confectionary,” he said.

“Since the juice is spread out in the chocolate, it doesn’t overpower the taste of the chocolate.”

“We believe that the technology adds an interesting twist to the range of chocolate confectionary products available,” said Bon. “The opportunity to replace part of the fat matrix with water-based juice droplets allows for greater flexibility and tailoring of both the overall fat and sugar content.”

Bon’s team used fruit juice and other food-approved ingredients to form a Pickering emulsion, named for British chemist Percival Spencer Umfreville Pickering. In 1907, Pickering discovered a new way to stabilize emulsions – combinations of liquids like egg yolk and oil in mayonnaise, which normally would not mix together. Chocolate is an emulsion of cocoa butter and water or milk combined with cocoa powder. Lecithin appears on the ingredient label of many chocolates because it is an emulsifier that fosters the process. Pickering’s method used solid particles rather than an emulsifier, and Bon’s team embraced that century- old approach in its work.

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